The Lost Chapters
by NautiusV
Summary: Ulquihime. My interpretation of the missing scenes between Ulquiorra and Orihime in the actual Bleach Series. I consider them to be more like manga chapters converted into written word. I welcome all criticism.
1. The Concept of Fear

**READ ME FIRST: **I am writing this story because I have read several Ulquihime fanfics on this website and I have to say that I really think many people have misunderstood the relationship between Ulquiorra and Orihime. Don't take this as a challenge or an insult of any sort because we are writing fanfics and thus its up to our own individual interpretations, and I have found many delightful pieces of work, even if I don't agree with the story.

This is my Interpretation of the Ulquihime relationship. I have placed these chapters in line with the actual Bleach manga series

I don't think that I am a writer. I have never written fanfiction before, but you are free to critic and review as harshly as it pleases you. I write only what comes out from my head.

I am also writing this even though I would rather draw it instead, but I neither have the time nor skill to do so.

But anyway.

Here goes.

The Lost Chapters [Unofficially, obviously.]

(Chapter 262.1)

"I see you have still left your plate untouched."

Orihime turned towards the entering Espada. Flowing white cloak, half-helm of bone, unleveled black hair, and cold emerald eyes. The door shut behind him with a hollow echo.

Hands stiffly clasped in front of her, she stood firm. "I wish not to eat, as I am not hungry."

"You seem incredibly ignorant of my capabilities. Should I merely release my reiatsu at its full force I can crush your very soul."

He took a step towards the girl. A silent step.

Then another.

Threatened, Orihime took a cautionary step back. Her lips pulsed in a line as she fought to reveal any sign of panic. She did feel very vulnerable, for she did not call out her powers should he find any reason for her to be executed. Thoughts raced frantically her head as the Espada closed onto her.

He only stood a foot away. The food tray is all the way on the other side of the room now. Not that food is on her mind at the slightest.

"Don't be a fool."

The cold concrete startled Orihime as her back pressed against the white walls of her cellar. She tried to look for a way to escape but her eyes were transfixed on the eyes of her captor.

"I am not. I have faith in my friends that they live. I have faith that they will prevail." Why couldn't she look away.

Why.

"Faith?"

"This 'faith' you speak of, does not exist. It will not change their inevitable fate. It only blurs the truth. Human feelings such as 'faith' only distort rational thoughts"

"And then, bring despair."

Ulquiorra was so close to the girl that he felt every quickened breath that brushed against his neck. His eyes, like burning coals of jade, bore into her very soul. Her mind. Orihime felt like she was going to faint. The air around her suddenly felt so thin and heavy at the same time.

"…I…need to eat my meal," was all she was able to stutter out as her heart raced inside her chest. She forgot everything she wanted to say towards those cruel words of his. Such untrue words of her friends.

Ulquiorra continued to stare at the woman for a while, and then turned swiftly on his heels and walked out of the cellar without looking back. The door shut promptly behind him.

It was some time before Orihime was able to move away from the wall. What was it that almost made her heart stop? Fear? Terror? She couldn't put a word to what she just felt. Absent-mindedly, she sat down on the couch, and ate her fill from the cart in silence.

"She is indeed a strange woman." The Espada thought to himself as he walked off through the white, empty hallways.


	2. His Soliloquy

His Soliloquy (Chapter 262.2)

Feelings. That is what humans claim to have.

They seem so primitive. Using it to fill the gaps of their incompetent perception.

In the end, it is all the same.

Pain. Anger. Sorrow. Regret.

Despair.

Their fate, so clear in my eyes. But to them, it's clouded with lies. And then they fall.

So why does this woman fail to understand such futility? Why does she continue to believe?

It seems my words are useless to her. So pathetic, so human of her.

But her eyes held no fear as she stared into mine.

You confuse me, woman.


	3. Liaise

(NOTE: For information on this whole series, please refer to the first chapter.)

Liaise (Chapter 262.3)

The fights of her friends flashed before her eyes as they continued to fight for her.

Sado-kun. Rukia-san. Ishida-Kun. Kurosaki-Kun.

Kurosaki-Kun.

She thought she gave her last goodbye. Now it felt weird.

Why is it strange to feel happy that they are coming for her?

The door swung open. She did not have to turn her head to know it was him again. What does he want?

"Heal her"

Orihime turned around to face a scrawny girl on the floor. Her arms slashed and bruised in different places. She was bleeding heavily from the gash on her side.

Orihime felt queasy as she stretched her arms towards the girl. Such bloody bodies never brought good memories.

"Don't touch me you stupid bitch-" she coughed and shook as blood spluttered onto the floor. With one swift arm he knocked the head of the lesser arracar to the floor. "Silence. You brat."

"Stop that! She's already in such pain-"

"Why are you wasting your time? Do as I say and heal her."

Orihime turned to face the Espada in protest only to meet her captor's cold unmoving expression. With a sigh, she did as she was told and held her hands above the bleeding victim. "…I reject." Two flowers flowed from her hair and a dome of yellow formed around the lesser arracar. In no time at all, the girl was healed. With one spiteful look she glared wordlessly at Orihime before scampering away.

Orihime turned away from the girl to meet Ulquiorra abruptly face to face. Her heart skipped a beat as she steadied herself with her question.

"…Do you not feel for your fellow arracars?"

Ulquiorra paused before answering in his usual unfeeling tone. "You ask foolish questions. She was a fool and quarreled unnecessarily. Her impudent actions lead to the consequences she faced."

He took another step at her and demanded, "What is the purpose in feeling?"

In an attempt to break his piercing stare, Orihime looked down to find that Ulquiorra has left his collar unzipped, to reveal the large hole in his chest. She has never seen the hole of an Arracar so close up before.

Before she knew what she was doing, her fingers reached up to touch his chest.

Ulquiorra flinched as her soft fingertips traced the rim of his Hollow hole.

She followed the circular edge and down into its walls. Her fingers brushed along his pale collar bone.

Her fingers stopped suddenly as she realized what just happened.

He backed away hastily. Their eyes met for a brief moment before he swiftly turned on his heels and walked out of the cellar just as before. But behind the closed door the espada looked down at his chest and traced where the girl's fingers seemed to leave a burning trail across his hollow hole. The sensation never went away. Yesterday he let her slap him for no reason at all, and now this.

….

What was that?

Orihime stared to the ground.

What did I just do?

What on earth did I just do?


	4. Her Soliloquy

(NOTE: For information on this whole series, please refer to the first chapter.)

Her Soliloquy (Chapter 262.4)

They are coming for me.

Why. I thought by coming here I would save them instead.

Here as I sit with these white walls that surround me, all I feel is loneliness.

So I would sit and pray. Eyes closed, I see them, clashing swords with enemies so powerful they can bring down the earth.

But now,

All I see with my eyes closed are those piecing emerald eyes that never leave me. In my dreams, in my thoughts, he's there.

Every time I try to turn away, somehow my eyes again reach his gaze and I can't escape it.

Every time I searched for the reiatsu of my friends I find myself eventually tracking down his instead.

Maybe…he's just playing with my head.

This war that I am fighting….I must not lose.

For all of them who are coming for me, I must not lose.

I am not afraid.

….I will _not_ be afraid.


	5. Nightmare

Nightmare (Chapter 262.5)

Down this endless dark corridor she ran without stopping. Where are they?

"Inoue!" She halted. Was that Uryuu?

"Inoue?" Rukia? Where are they shouting from?

"Inoue!" Sado-kun? Where are you all?

"Inoue!" Kurosaki-kun? Kurosaki-kun?

"KUROSAKI!" She screamed.

The echos of their voices continued down the halls, slowly becoming faint and distant. Frantically, she ran after them.

Wait! Come back! Don't Dissappear!

Suddenly a figure in the darkness came to view. She slid to a halt. "Kurosaki…..kun?"

She took a step forward, and the figure turned around.

"Woman"

The booming voice shivered through the walls and the ground began to shake. As the white cement cracked and collapsed into pieces around her she frantically dodged the falling pieces. The floor began to give way and she leaped on one falling piece to another

"Woman"

Bright whiteness engulfed her sight as she opened her eyes to greet a familiar pair of jade eyes staring back at her. They stared at each other in silence.

"Woman, let go of me." Startled by him breaking the silence, Orihime looked down to see her frantic fingers clasped around the espada's bone pale arm. Embarrassed, she quickly withdrew from him. "….sorry." she muttered silently as she slid to the other side of the couch. Since when did she fall asleep?

The silence lingered for a while. Orihime tried to ignore his presence as she looked at the moon through the barred window, and wondered if the others could see the same moon.

"The Shinigami boy will die. You waste your efforts on this hope of yours."

Her body shook upon hearing his words. She resisted the urge to turn around. "No."

Ulquiorra stared at the woman as she watched the sky. Does she not know the concept of despair? He turned around to leave.

He stopped at the door. "You were calling him in your sleep."

He left before she could turn around and reply.


	6. Loose Ends

Loose Ends (Chapter 378.1)

Nobody knew.

When everyone's backs were turned, I betrayed them.

Hueco Mundo, without Aizen, has been reduced to deserted ruins. The silence is deafening.

I ran. Ran amongst the white rubble. Alone. It was almost as if I knew where it was all along. Waiting

Now, on the trip back to Karakura Town, nobody seemed to have taken notice of my newfound item. I put my hand into the pocket to feel them, safe within my grasp:

A broken horn. The only thing left of him.


	7. Déjà vu

(NOTE: For information on this whole series, please refer to the first chapter.)

Déjà vu (Chapter 428.7)

Night has fallen. The cool breeze blew softly into her room as she watched the moon.

Wondering if those lost and far away can see the same moon.

Checking to make sure no one was at home, Orihime muttered silently as the petals of blue cascaded from her hair and formed a double barrier around her room.

Sitting on the floor she produced the broken bone from a case kept safely underneath her bed. She shivered at the memory of Ichigo's hollow; the monster that sliced his horn and reduced him to ashes.

She didn't dare to call that monster Ichigo.

As she stretched her hands over the bone, she braced herself.

"Souten Kishun…"

Hoping that she is ready.

"….I Reject"

A soft orange dome formed around the silver horn. Orihime knew her power had limitations, but she decided to stretch them as far as she could. Just to see him again.

Much time has passed since he was killed. Yet, the memories of him were fresh as if it was just yesterday.

Tiny particles of ash began to appear and float around her.

Orihime tried to remember every detail of him. His disheveled hair, almost touching his shoulders... His startling green eyes, his turquoise tear streaks, stained or scarred on his cheeks. She wonders which one it was.

The whole horn slowly came into form.

Come on Inoue, she told herself. Reject!

A familiar half-helm of bone joined the horn.

Orihime was already feeling the strain as she focused hard on her healing. She did not know how much of him she could bring back, if she could bring him back at all.

The raven-shaded hair began to reappear together with his face.

More and more ash collected around her, though she did not seem to notice. The peculiar dust drifted slowly into the air; some of it being continuously drawn down into his face to colour the surfaces of his lips.

Then his neck

Then shoulders.

Then, his chest and torso began to form. Though she cannot see them, she fought hard to bring back every part of Ulquiorra's body that was blown away.

As the hours went by, hours she could not count, the dust around her seemed more and more reluctant to join the healing flesh. Orihime knew she was at her limit; she has never brought back someone from the dead before, and everything in her power is now put to the test. She cannot fail.

"Please…." She whispered quietly.

Infinite hours it seemed, did Orihime spend kneeling with her arms stretched over his body. Just a little more, she thought despairingly. All around her the room started spinning. Her concentration of her power has never before been so drained, all at once.

All for a single person.

As the early lights of dawn broke the horizon Orihime finally lowered her stiffened arms as the orange shield broke around the renewed flesh. Breathing heavily from her ceaseless night of burning up all the strength and power she ever imagined having, tears of fear, happiness and sadness all seemed to flow from her ash-coloured eyes.

He is here. Here, at last.

Finally she allowed herself to succumb to her exhaustion, and collapsed onto his body.

…In the silence of the emerging sun, a fresh breath of air was taken into newly reborn lungs.


	8. Silence

Silence (Chapter 262.7)

On the top of Las Noches the wind blows harshly. Yet the endless dunes of sand never seem to shift.

For hundreds of human years in this empty wilderness he has always watched this landscape. It brought him some…comfort, if you will.

Above where only the moon dominated the sky, no stars are seen in the distance. But it is in this vast darkness where his mind can be cleared. Perhaps he was drawn to how such emptiness echoed his soul.

A dark void. The fate of world. The inevitable, unchanging fate of every soul in the human world. That was Aizen's vision.

As he scanned the land before him,

Suddenly in the distance, a voice begins to sing.

A song, being heard in all of Hueco Mundo.

Something Ulquiorra has never heard for an eternity...

All around the dunes seem to echo with her voice.

The moon above, quivered as her melody filled the air.

Even the winds seem to weaken, to listen to her.

Ulquiorra continued to stare into the horizon as the voice climbed up and down the melody, pulsing through the land, through the ground beneath him, pulsing through his body with every note.

Long after her voice faded into the distance, he remained where he stood for her voice still echoed in his mind.

Finally, he decided, to descend back down below. He swiftly returned to his quarters, and there he sat, burying his head into his hands.

He knew the owner of the voice.

How it haunted him.

_Note to readers: The song she sang was "Enter From The East" by Jewel. Quite appropriate, I have to say._

_PS: This chapter is not in chronological order with the rest. It is a flashback to previous events. Some people were confused there._


	9. Adrift

Adrift (Chapter 428.9)

Morning has arrived already?

In Orihime's open eyes, all she saw was the ceiling of her room.

…ceiling?

How long has she been unconscious?

Immediately she picked herself up to register her surroundings. Though her windows the colours of dusk can be seen descending onto the quiet Karakura Town. Morning has come and left.

She sits alone. In her bed sheets.

Someone has put her in bed.

Someone who was no longer here, it seems.

The clock on her bedside table read 7:42pm.

Orihime frowned and tried to figure out if whatever she remembered happening in the morning, really happened at all. Maybe she was just fantasizing.

Maybe she was just going insane.

She crept from her bed covers and onto the floor to pull out that peach coloured case.

At first she hesitated.

Then carefully she removed its cover to reveal….it's empty contents.

So it did happen then. She guessed.

He could have just disintegrated again after she collapsed.

If he did, maybe he's a floating particle shifting between heaven and hell.

Between Hueco Mundo and Karakura Town.

If he's a particle, then she has failed. Failed again.

She can only try to force tears from her eyes to fill the hole that is welling up in her heart. "Why am I so torn apart?" She pressed her trembling hands to her head. It hurts.

Everything hurts.

Maybe it's better that way, she thought.

Maybe he's somewhere now that he can finally feel the heart. Where he can come to know happiness.

Yes. Maybe indeed.


	10. Goodbye

Goodbye [Chapter 428.8]

…_Where am I?_

Ulquiorra's eyes focused on the unfamiliar features presented to him.

A Ceiling fan.

Two ceiling lights.

Cream shaded walls that meet at four corners.

Following the rays of light his eyes traced the room, finding an open window.

_So this is Sunrise._

He did not expect to be conscious at this point of time. Or even, at all. Nothing makes sense in this moment.

Seemingly unfamiliar with existing, the Cuartro Espada tested the power in his limbs, lifting up his rigid right arm only to find his fingers entwined with ember locks of hair…

Stiffly he moved his neck to discover her lying motionless across his abdomen.

_So, it was you. Woman._

Ulquiorra continued to remain on the floor, regenerating himself. She wasn't complete. His reiatsu was still in fragments, the reason why people in the vicinity of this house did not already start collapsing into comas.

_My eye sees everything_, he used to think. _Nothing can escape it._

_What it does not see does not exist._

Now he refuses to believe what he sees.

_Because of the heart you fell into Aizen's traps. You betrayed your friends and unwittingly surrendered to us._

_Because of the heart you sacrifice. You become enraged with hatred and sorrow. _

_Because of the heart you become savage beasts to primitive emotions._

Slowly sitting up, he moved his head to look down at the woman resting quietly in his lap.

_Because of the heart you and your friends managed to go beyond all odds and emerge victorious. _

His hand subconsciously sieved through the locks and twirls of her hair.

_Because of the heart you made me believe in what I could not see._

He didn't have much time. Once he was fully regenerated he would have to leave before Ichigo and the rest of her friends detect him.

Friends, huh.

_Is that why you brought me back?_

_I did everything in my power to crush your spirit. I did everything to destroy your so-called hope. _

_I put your heart on countless trials, waiting to see what I wanted to see, waiting to show you what I could see. All my anticipations. All at once. Ruined._

_Not once did you beg for mercy._

_Not once did you attempt to end your life_

_And when I thought you finally understood the meaningless of the heart, the tables turned on me from your single cry of help._

_And you still do not fear me. I, a monstrous, callous being who could have killed you at any second._

_Instead,_

_You gave me your heart._

The Espada's strength had nearly all returned. He knew he did not belong here on earth, and there is not much time left to waste. Picking himself off the floor, he carried Inoue in his arms, still fast asleep and unaware of what was happening.

Slowly, he lowered her into her bed and tucked her in. Aizen entrusted her to him, after all.

He turned to go.

"I suppose only these words you humans use seem appropriate for this time," he spoke.

He stared at the wall for a moment, before turning around again to face the girl.

He bent down.

And kissed her on the lips.

"…Thank you."

He straightened up back into his stolid posture, walked towards the window, and flew out of her room.

Standing on the rooftop, a Garganta opened and in one swift motion, the raven haired Arrancar stepped into the darkness and vanished into the void.


End file.
